By Nasratu Kargbo
The Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic has dissolved with President Bio giving his closing speech.
Bio on the 25th April 2023 at the dissolution ceremony in parliament highlighted his government’s successes since he assumed office in 2018.
Speaking on achievements made in youth development, he explained that over the past five years his government invested in young people by creating opportunities for training, entrepreneurship, and job creation.
“Youth economic empowerment through gainful employment and entrepreneurship is a critical priority for my Administration, as young people are the key to building a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation”.
He explained that they have successfully rolled out numerous innovative initiatives including the National Youth Empowerment Fund, Youth Connekt Hubs in various parts of the country, established 28 Car Wash Centres which provide direct employment for nearly a thousand young people nationwide. He also mentioned the creation of Youth Farms to support 10,000 young people in agriculture.
In the area of gender Bio stated that they’ve made positive changes in the gender dimension of education in Sierra Leone since 2018, stating that they have achieved gender parity in schools. “Girls have higher retention and pass rates in all national transition examinations. More girls are now studying STEM disciplines, and today they have higher transition rates into tertiary and vocational institutions”, he said.
He said the long-term vision is to train more women engineers, doctors, scientists and innovators.
Highlighting strides made in the health sector, he said his government increased the sector’s annual budgetary allocation from 6% in 2018 to 11.6% in 2021. He mentioned that they have constructed or rehabilitated more than two hundred healthcare facilities, supported trainings for specialist doctors and recruited and trained over five thousand pin-coded staff and eight thousand seven hundred community health workers recruited
In addition, he said they have rolled out the hospital-on-wheels project that serves over twenty thousand patients in twelve districts, and installed four dialysis stations for treating more than seven hundred patients.
He further mentioned the introduction of cervical cancer screening at eight healthcare facilities.
The President said: “The timely availability of essential drugs has improved by 90%. Free HPV vaccines have been provided for nearly two hundred thousand (200,000) girls, and hundreds of solar refrigerators are now available nationwide for vaccine storage”.
Bio also spoke on agriculture, explaining that they are concerned about the increase in food insecurity that citizens face and noted that it is therefore significant that investing in agriculture remains a core priority to address the issue. Amongst the strides made in the sector, he mentioned that they provided seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and other agricultural inputs to over twelve thousand farmers on an annual basis through e-voucher system, to boost food production.
“To feed our people, we must transition from being a net food importer to developing agro-allied 41 41 industrial zones in our rural areas to becoming a net exporter of primary agricultural commodities” said Bio.
The President elaborated on the above and many other achievements they’ve made in his term in office. He called on all to ensure that they work together towards building a better democracy and better Sierra Leone.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (26/04/23)
